Long pepper (Piper hispidinervum C. DC.) is a native plant of the State of Acre. It is characterized by the production of essential oil with high safrol concentration, used in the production of perfumes, cosmetic and insecticides. Because it is a plant still in the domestication phase, there is need of research to maximize its productivity. One of these studies refers to the best month of cutting and still if it is possible to make one or more cuts in an interval of 12 months. In this work, our aim was to evaluate the best month and frequency of cutting of long pepper for three years. Two experiments were established, using a complete randomized blocks design in an arrangement of split plots, with the years as the main plots and the months as the subplots. The first experiment had four repetitions and eight useful plants by plots in the spacing of 1 m x 1 m. There was only one cut in an interval of 12 months, which was made in October, November, December, January, February, March and April. The second experiment had nine repetitions and two cuts in 12 months, with a four month interval between the first and the second cuts, which were accomplished in: October/February; November/March and December/April. It was verified in both experiments that: 1) the cuts made closer to the end of the rainy season, March and April, were the ones that presented the largest oil productivity; and, 2) the contend of essential oil in relation to dry matter was larger when only one cut was made in an interval of twelve months.
Piper hispidinervum; safrol; dry matter